Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan (PTI Photo)
Imran, Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup-winning captain, became Prime Minister in 2018 after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf won the general elections. He remained in office until being voted out in 2022.
Haroon said the task force had initially recommended a compromise. We were ordered to submit a revised domestic cricket plan and we did that and it was a hybrid one,” he said. “I remember we told Imran that the hybrid model was best for our cricket as while we had reduced teams to eight but we had kept the participation of departmental teams in domestic cricket. “People talk about the IPL but forget that in India they still have the Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy and their state level associations are independent and have their own regular domestic events at club level,” he said.
“How much time do you think a Prime Minister can give?
Former Pakistan chief selector and head coach Haroon Rasheed believes the decline of Pakistan cricket can be traced back to the sweeping domestic-structure changes introduced during Imran Khan ’s tenure as Prime Minister, claiming the former Pakistan captain rejected a proposed hybrid model in favour of drastically reducing the number of first-class teams.
But according to him, Imran was unwilling to accept the plan. But he rejected it outright,” Haroon said on a podcast on the ‘Smash It’ sports channel. Haroon, who was part of a task force formed to examine Pakistan’s domestic structure during Imran’s time in office, recalled that the group had proposed retaining departmental teams alongside a streamlined provincial system. “I was part of the cricket board and task force and I remember when we met with Imran we submitted a hybrid domestic cricket model.